While You All Were Out - Holding Down the Fort in Seattle

While You All Were Out in Walla2 #wbc10 - Holding Down the Fort in Seattle

Last weekend was a spectacular weekend for 95% of Seattle best of the best bloggers and reviewers and a chance for some wine bloggers from as far as Iowa, Grace Hoffman (@cellarmistress), to meet up with some old friends, new friends and experience Walla2 as we call it. Although I was hearing of some intense condo trashing, traffic snarl issues and reading some great tweets, I never made it out to Walla2. Not because I didn't feel like going, but because I wanted to celebrate my birthday with my friends. Working in the industry and owning a wine production company allows me, better yet, puts me in Walla2 often. I've been there and done that. Not exactly the way that this weekend presented itself to be, but close. I'm glad everyone had a good time and experienced Wine Country.

Being in Seattle last weekend I decided to explore a new Wine Bar. Yashar (@yasharwinemongr), Nate (@nateaussie), Jen Miller (@jenkmiller) and I all met up at IN THE RED WINE BAR (@intheredwinebar) on Phinney Ridge where we sat around drinking the ENTIRE wine list. I ended up taking Yashar's great recommendation on a bottle to buy and boy was he dead on. I bought a bottle of Australian Wine called Heartland Stickleback Red. A blend of Shiraz, Cab, Grenache and some other weird off-the-wall nutty grape. BIG WINE.

In the Red Wine Bar on Phinney Ridge is a cozy, comforting, eclectic spot on the eastside of the Ridge itself, just above 64th st. They were not quite 100% open, but they did have a little open house party. Very nice. I love the staff of managers and owners who just want to follow their passion of being in the wine business. And this is the way they did it. Good Job.

So as far as going to Walla2, as my friend and fellow blogger Alex Eagleton said, "I'm stuck in an hours worth of traffic on I-90 coming home", no thanks. But I'm sure it was well worth it for those of you who went, I salute the stories, the blogs, the tweets and the laughs. But I had a great birthday in the city that I love. Plus we held the Fort down for you all. LOL.

Those of us Holding Down the Fort:

@yasharwinemongr - Yashar "Shizzle" Shayan - Wine Monger Seattle
@Nateaussie - Nate - Tagging along w/ Jen (as always)=) for the Tim Tam Stories. =)
@Jenkmiller - Adventures of Jen & Allrecipes.com
@winos_seattle - Antoine Pin - Parallel Winos / Underground Winos
@vineyardgoddess - Sarah Ness - Vineyard Gurl
@nicknanry - Nick Nanry - Underground Winos of Seattle


Those you that I know were there in Walla2(add your link in the comments if I missed you and I will add you):

@Wawinereport - Shawn Sullivan - Washington Wine Report
@WineFoot - Duane Pemberton - Wine Foot "Stomping the Snob out of Wine"
@Wawinebeer - Bean Fairbanks - Washington Wine & Beer
@Nwwineandre - Maureen Nolan - NW Wine & Real Estate
@Nectarwine - Josh Wade - Drink Nectar
@Shona425 - Shona Milne - Woodinville Wine Update
@celo4life - Alex Eagleton - Stems & Legs
@seattlewinegal - B.E. - Seattle Wine Gal
@cellarmistress - Grace Hoffman - Cellar Talk